Arrested youths supplied charas to LPU students

Amit Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 12

Two students of Lovely Professional University (LPU), Phagwara, who were arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) along with 600 grams of charas, used to supply the prohibited substance to college students.

They used to buy charas from Malana valley near Manikaran in Himachal Pradesh. The accused, who were allegedly addicts, were under huge debt, which forced them to indulge in drug peddling.

On October 11, NCB sleuths had arrested Prashant Upadhyay and Naveen Kumar, both BTech students at the LPU, Sunny Thakur, a former student of the university, and Gurmeet Lal, a taxi driver.

Kaustubh Sharma, DIG, Zonal Director, NCB, said Prashant was staying outside the LPU campus and was influenced by people who dragged him into drug addiction. “He was under depression due to some reasons, following which he took to drugs. He was under huge debt. His motorcycle was also mortgaged with someone from whom he had taken money,” Sharma said.

NCB official further said, “Prashant, Naveen and Sunny, were into drug peddling. They used to collect money from college students and local youths and get drugs for them from Malana valley. The 600-gram charas recovered from their possession is worth Rs 40,000. While 100 gram of the drug was purchased by them for Rs 25,000, the remaining 500 gram was purchased for Rs 15,000.”

The NCB Zonal Director said the youths were into drug peddling for the last few months and the taxi driver, who had been arrested, used to accompany them.

NCB sources said they were trying to trace those who used to supply the drugs to the youths in Himachal Pradesh.

The arrested youths frequented parties hosted in Manali and Kasol.